"Woah. I've only seen a runway that long when I took a tour of the Wonderbolts training center when I was a filly." Rainbow muttered as we came into view of the strip.
I grinned. The runway was actually much shorter than most, only a klick and a half long. It didn't have painted lines and numbers either. Two taxiways exited each end leading to the apron, a good sized paved area with the hangar opening on one side. This was where my jets were parked.
"Eh, by my standards this is fairly short." I replied as we made our way towards the hangar, "Most back home are three kilometres long."
"Three?" Twilight asked as we crossed the runway, "Why would you need such a long runway?"
I turned back to her as I spoke, "Some of the really big transport and tanker planes we have need 'em. And I mean really big planes."
"Oh." Was all Twilight said as we crossed the runway-something I would never do if there were flight ops in progress-and approached the Super Arrows. All three were painted with a functional standard grey camouflage, as well as bearing standard RCAF roundels and other markings. I could tell mine apart from the other two as it had my name, rank and callsign stenciled on the side just under the canopy.
"Wow these things look so awesome!" Dash exclaimed as she flew up and around the plane looking at it from all angles. Seeing as there was no risk of an accident, I let her.
"Huh." Said Twilight, as she too examined the plane, "You weren't kidding when you said they were big. I mean does this really fly?"
I nodded as my own eyes went over the aircraft. I had over one hundred hours at the controls of this specific plane, but every time I laid eyes on it I still felt a little part inside of me squealing with joy, fan-girling over my plane. It was just so sleek and, well...awesome!
"What's up with this one?" Dash asked. I looked over to see her hovering above the CF-200B.
"That's a two seater." I replied hovering over, "Its used for training and when you need a designator aircraft for laser guided weapons."
At that her eyes lit up. "Can we!?"
"Can we what?" I asked in puzzlement quirking an eyebrow.
"Go for a flight!" Dash exclaimed. "You can fly, and Ill enjoy the ride."
I thought it over. On one hand, or rather, hoof, It was against regulations to take a civilian for a ride unless given permission by the wing commander. But the other side was that no one back home would ever know if I did get back. I could just 'conveniently' forget.
My mind made up, I replied "Fine. Come with me. You can borrow one of my extra flight suits." I hovered down to land before trotting off towards my cabin, Dash and Twi following.
"Are you sure that's OK Slash?" Twilight asked, and I quirked an eyebrow at her use of my chosen pony name.
"Yeah. Ill just take her up, show the speed and maneuverability and come back. Will you be OK waiting for a bit?" I asked as I opened the front door.
"Yeah that's fine." She replied as the three of us entered. "So where did this base come from? It wasn't here before. And whats this building."
"I dunno about the base. It was just here when I got my vision back. And this is my cabin from my former base. Dunno how this got here either." I explained as The two of them entered.
"Hey who's this?" Rainbow asked as she pointed a hoof at a picture of me and my Dad. "I know thats you but who's this?"
I looked over at the picture. It was of me at my graduation from 'fighter school' with my dad. He was a younger guy for a father only being 43. In fact I had been something of an 'accident' when my dad was Eighteen. According to him my Mom had left because she hadn't wanted the responsibility at their young age, leaving Dad to raise me. As a result we had been extremely close. Just looking at the picture made me want to cry since I had no way home at the moment. I missed him more than I would admit.
I steeled myself and forced my tears back though as I replied, "Thats my Dad. My Mom left after she had me…"
"Really?" Rainbow asked, "How old were they when they had you?"
"Dad was eighteen, Mom was only sixteen." I answered as I led them into my bedroom.
"Really?!" Dash exclaimed as I took one of my spare green fight suits out of the closet. "Me too!"
I stopped and gave her a surprised look, "Oh…huh. How old are you now?"
"Twenty-five." She replied.
Rainbow's look of surprise mirrored mine as I replied, "Me too!"
Twilight too had a look of surprise, and soon began muttering to herself.
"Thats really weird." Dash said as she took the flight suit and began putting it on.
"So why do we need these?" She asked changing the subject.
"Oh, the flight suits?" I asked and she nodded as she continued to struggle into it. "It has spots to attach the G-suit and harnesses."
"G-suits?" Dash asked as she managed to zip up the suit.
"I'll explain later." I replied leading them back to the door, with Twilight muttering quietly to herself the whole way.
I reached the door and opened the closet to grab my helmet, G-suit, and other necessary gear, as well as my extra set, which I gave to Dash.
"Do we really need all this?" She asked, slipping the grey helmet on her head and putting the rest on her back to carry.
"Yup." I answered, doing the same and heading out the door.
"So uh…Whats your dad like?" Dash asked as we exited the door.
"He's…cool." I muttered.
"Cool?"
"Dash…I don't really wanna talk about him right now…" I said as I glanced at her.
Twilight glanced up, surprised from her thoughts, at this exchange. She looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "You miss him don't you?"
"Yes."
We walked the rest of the way to the plane in silence, save for the sounds of three sets of hooves. "Wait here." I said as we came up to the aircraft. I promptly dropped all the gear off my back. Hovering up, I unlatched the canopy and opened it, while Dash and Twilight waited. I hovered back down and grabbed some of Dash's borrowed gear dropping it beside us.
"Stay still." I muttered before I took the G-suit and began strapping it on around Dash's rear legs. She obeyed and it only took a few seconds.
"OK hop in." I said indicating the rear seat.
"So whats this for?" The Rainbow pegasus asked as we hovered up.
"The G-suit?" I replied.
"Yeah."
Dash hovered up to the cockpit as I replied, "It's to prevent blackouts. You now when you do a high speed turn and you feel like your body is trying to go to the outside of the turn?"
"Yeah." She replied as I began to buckle her in.
"Well, at the speeds this jet will get going, if we turn really hard the blood will drain from your head and you'll black out. The air pockets in the G-suit will inflate during those turns and squeeze your legs, preventing the blood from leaving your head." I explained as I finished tightening the last restraints.
"Oh." Dash muttered. "Cool. So, what are all these buttons and black things?" she finished, waving a hoof at the screens and instruments.
I glanced at it, remembering the first time I had been in a Super Arrow's cockpit. At first glance, like most modern fighter jets, it was a fairly intimidating amount of buttons, knobs, display screens, and dials. More so when the screens were on.
"Don't worry about it. Just don't touch anything but this-" I said, indicating the stick "-this, and this." As well as pointing out the rudder pedals and throttle. "Just rest your hooves lightly on them to feel how they move as I fly the plane."
"OK." Dash said, barely hiding her excitement as I connected her radio and oxygen from the mask.
"When I start the plane, clip this on, and lower your visor OK?" I said pointing to her mask.
"Got it." She replied.
I nodded before hovering down to Twilight. "Twi, can you wait by the cabin? I don't want the jet wash or anything to hurt you."
"Alright." She said, "Good luck!"
"Not gonna need it!" I replied with a smile as she turned around and walked away as I quickly attached my own G-suit before hopping into the front seat. I quickly attached my own restraints as well as radio and oxygen. Satisfied, I began running over my start-checklist.
"Fuel pump on." I muttered as I went through the list, "Mixture rich. Throttle full. Throttle all the way back. Mixture lean. Aaaaand ignition!" I finished as I flipped the switch and the engines roared to life.
I flipped on the avionics and the radio.
"Check check. You hear me Dash?" I asked over the intercom.
"Yeah I got ya. How are we talking right now?" She replied.
"The mask has a built in microphone." I said, continuing to flip on the radar and the Heads Up Display causing it to project onto my helmet's visor.
"Oh…The hay?! Hey, Slash?" Dash said in surprise.
"Yeah?" I asked, not pausing in my start up.
"What's this stuff that just appeared on the visor?"
"Thats the HUD, or Heads Up Display. Its shows speed, altitude, heading and a bunch of other useful stuff." I explained.
"Oh, so-"
"Wait one." I said cutting her off. I had finished my start up and was about to start taxing when I had spotted something on the radio display. I had set it to scan all channels for any radio traffic, just in case, and it had found something.
"What is it?" Dash asked.
"I'm getting radio traffic." I replied, fiddling with the radio and finding the frequency.
"Radio traffic?"
"Yeah, long range communication equipment. Allows us to talk to other planes." I replied, "Now be quiet lets see whats going on."
And with that I flicked to the frequency. A panicked sounding female voice immediately filled my headphones.
"-ayday, Mayday! This is Sukhoi fifty, Tiger Three-Three! I've lost my number two engine and am under attack by an unknown hostile! If you are receiving please respond!"
I Immediately took action, opening the throttle and beginning to taxi to the runway, while simultaneously hitting the transmit button on the stick.
"Tiger three-three, this is Avro Charlie-Foxtrot-Two-Hundred Nighthawk two-one. How copy?" I asked.
"Oh thank god! Solid copy Nighthawk! Wait one!" Came the voice back full of relief.
"Uh…what?" Dash asked from the back seat, "What just happened?"
I turned onto the runway not hesitating as I slammed open the throttle to full afterburner. "Radio discipline. I'll teach you a bit another time." I told her as I quickly did inventory, flicking my weapons to armed. The jet was armed with six AIM-120 radar guided missiles and two Sidewinder heat seekers. Satisfied, I glanced at my airspeed and eased back on the stick, bringing the jet into the air. I couldn't see Dash in the back but I figured she had a huge grin on her face.
"Nighthawk two-one, Tiger three-three! Whats your locat-Fuck!" The call cut off mid sentence as I banked to the right and climbed getting a look at the castle built on the side of a mountain to the North. Canterlot Twilight had told me back in the library.
"Tiger! Do you copy!?" I yelled. Sure, she was obviously Russian, much like the others that had killed half my flight a few days back, but she was probably the only other human in a similar situation to me, considering I was pretty sure the ponies didn't have Su-50s.
"I'm OK Nighthawk! I'm OK! Fuck. What is this thing." She muttered. "Nighthawk. I'm lighting up my radar!"
"Roger." I replied, right before a Sukhoi's radar spike appeared on my Radar Warning Receiver, or my RWR. It detected any radar emissions from aircraft and told me where it was. "I got your spike! Spiking you! Oscar Mike." I said turning toward the blip on the screen about two hundred klicks to the North and activating my radar.
"I got you as well." Tiger replied. "Heading to you full throttle."
"Roger, Nighthawk out." I replied opening to full afterburner and climbing. Behind Tiger's radar spike I could see a much bigger contact. I took a deep breath to quell my rapidly accelerating heart beat.
"Slash? Whats going on?" Dash asked as the speed built up.
"Tiger is in trouble. And we are going to help her." I replied as the jet broke the speed of sound and I levelled out at seven thousand feet.
I hit my transmit button again before speaking. "Tiger, this is Nighthawk. What can you tell me about your attacker?"
"Nighthawk, Tiger! All I can say is it looks like a god damn dragon! Out!" I raised my eyebrow at that.
As we broke mach three and the range between us rapidly closed as I glanced at my radar again. From my displays Tiger was now one hundred klicks away at five thousand feet doing about four hundred knots, or about eight hundred kilometres an hour. Her slow speed was no doubt because of her blown engine.
"Are Dragons a thing here Dash?" I asked.
"Yup." She replied. I could almost hear the nervousness in her voice.
"Big fire breathing lizard things?"
"Yeah. Are we really gonna attack it?"
"Well yeah…but…fuck." Was all could think of to say.
I began trying to think of a plan of attack. The heat seekers were out, as a dragon wouldn't be putting out enough heat for them to lock on to. That left the AMRAAMs. They had a range of about one hundred klicks, but if I wanted to guarantee a hit and avoid hitting Tiger it would be best to attack from behind.
My mind made up, I watched the range count down. I glanced out of the cockpit as we came within five klicks. Off to the right about two klicks away and three thousand feet below was Canterlot. To the left I immediately spotted a big orange thing flying three thousand feet below, level with the castle and city, chasing a small black dot across the sky.
"Tiger three-three, this is Nighthawk two-one. I have visual."
"Roger I see you too!" She replied, relief evident.
I was about to roll over and dive in behind when the dragon opened its mouth and spewed a fireball at the Russian aircraft. My eyes widened and I quickly shouted, "Tiger! Break left!"
She quickly complied rolling left and turning out of the way of the fireball. Unfortunately this sent her straight toward Canterlot, and at the speed the jet was going…
Unfortunately the dragon followed. I quickly rolled over with my throttle all the way back and deployed my air breaks. I felt my heart rate spike as I selected all six of my AMRAAMs and swiftly locked up the dragon. I saw Tiger panic and turn away to avoid the castle. I figured she came within two hundred meters of the edge.
"Slash! the dragons gonna hit Canterlot!" Dash yelled over my headphones.
I didn't hesitate.
"Fox three!"
I loosed the missiles and rolled into a hard right turn to avoid the castle. I felt the G-forces squishing me into my seat and I fought to remain conscious. I watched as our trajectory changed and I levelled out on a course that would take us past the mountain. Looking to the left I quickly spotted the missile trails right before impact. There a flash as the first three impacted all over his back, doing negligible damage as the dragon flapped his wings and went into a hover in front of the castle. The next three were better, two hitting each wing and shredding them. The dragon lost all his lift and began to plummet. I watched as he fell, a full five thousand feet before smashing into the ground.
He didn't get up.
"WOO! Hell yeah! Scratch one dragon!" I exclaimed.
"Nice shooting Nighthawk! I owe you!" Tiger three-three replied.
"Wow. was all Dash said.
"No prob. You got anywhere to land?" I asked quickly spotting the Sukhoi limping along.
I flew over and pulled up onto her wing as she replied "Negative. I'm a bit banged up and low on fuel though."
I looked over to see her helmet looking over at me. "Roger that. Follow me then. Out."
I turned back towards the base, heading home.